Her Excellency Dame Calliopa Pearlette Louisy has announced that she will step down as Saint Lucia’s Governor General on 31st December 2017. She made the announcement in a nationally televised address last evening. She is the first woman to hold the Office of Governor General of Saint Lucia. She was sworn in on 17th September 1997.

Two prominent political scientists have charged that the decision by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart to try to stretch the life of his Government by not ringing the election bell anytime soon is a cheap way to hold onto power and that will be to his own detriment. Stuart told the last sitting of Parliament that he intended to serve his entire five-year term in office.

Chairperson of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CBI), during a special Christmas cocktail hosted by the Unit in collaboration with Henley & Partners, described the levels of revenue derived from direct foreign investment under the CBI programme this year, as unprecedented and the best ever, especially at a time when other programmes are struggling to maintain the interest of potential applicants.

Information released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist (ICIJ) indicate that some Caribbean countries who were recently named on a European Union list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, have been added to the Offshore Leaks database, Barbados being one of those.

Minister responsible for Sustainable Development, Dr Gale Rigobert, says that Saint Lucia achieved a small victory at COP23 which took place in Germany last month, in that the country acquired the expertise required to go after the grants and concessionary loans made available to assist the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) in building up resilience to climate change.

The European Union chief Brexit negotiator says that Britain will have no say in its decision-making during the transition period and must obey all the rules of the bloc. The European partners would accept a transition period to help prepare for Brexit that should last until the end of 2020. However, Britain would be allowed to negotiate new trade agreements with other nations during that time but will not be allowed to finalize any agreement until 2021. Britain is the first country ever to leave the bloc.